


Cosmic Endings

by lip2jin



Series: wjsn police au [3]
Category: LOONA (Korea Band), 우주소녀 | Cosmic Girls | WJSN
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2020-12-23 20:37:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21087482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lip2jin/pseuds/lip2jin
Summary: sequel to cosmic missions





	1. Act 1

Sojung never wanted to think her job, her career, her passion, was mundane. Yet, here she was, snoozing away at her desk for what felt like the billionth time this new year. She knew, deep down, that having a task force wasn’t always going to be action, action, action. She never wanted to face the fact that most of the time, she would just be drowning in paperwork. 

It’s only been a couple months into the new year. It had been a while since their last mission that took down Wonho. Everything had quieted down in the area, a little too quiet for Sojung’s liking. 

Her chin rested on her hand as her eyes wandered to look outside her office window. She jokingly grimaced at Jiyeon giving Juyeon an eskimo kiss goodbye as they part ways in the hallway. She looked to her left, watching a few of her other teammates boring holes through their computers.

With how silent the field has been, maybe Sojung should start planning that team bonding excursion she’s always wanted to do.

She picked up her phone, dialing a number that seemed nearly unfamiliar now, but still knew by heart.

“Mom? We’re coming to Busan.”

Sojung stared back at the confused looks she got from her team members.

“What about work?”

“What will we even do there?”

“Where are we going?”

They shot questions at their leader, puzzled at the idea of a vacation. This was, by no means, a vacation.

Well, maybe it was, but she didn’t want to call it that in front of them.

“It will be a team bonding experience!”

She caught Jiyeon smirking and scoffing from the corner of her eye. “As if we don’t already do that enough.” She muttered under her breath. There were scattered giggles amongst them, making Sojung roll her eyes good heartedly.

“I think a change of scenery will be good for us.”

Sojung had hoped that this trip would stay just a trip. But that itch for solving crimes just couldn’t stay away for too long.

Her hometown, Busan, was exactly how she left it all those years ago. Her house was the same, her mother was the same, although just a tad bit older.

Her place was spacious enough to house her whole team, leaving it up to them to choose rooms and decide who rooms with who for the next month or so.

Sojung hadn’t really thought about how much time they would be spending down here, maybe a month minimum.

She was setting her bags down in her old room when her phone beeped, signaling a call from a private number.

“Hello?”

“You don’t give me a head’s up that you’re in town?”

Sojung smiled at the voice. “Haseul. It’s been a while.”

“Indeed it has.”

Hyunjung glanced periodically at her wife from across the room while she hung their clothes up in the closet. Sojung already had her laptop set up on a desk, typing away.

She wrapped her arms around Sojung’s neck, resting her chin on top of her head. “I thought this was a team bonding trip, what are you doing?”

“Just some last minute paper work.” She mumbled out, only half lying to her.

Hyunjung resumed unpacking and left Sojung to finish up on her laptop.

Being back home brought back a lot of memories Sojung wanted to forget, but she couldn’t. Hyunjung had only visited a few times, but never really knew the extent of how Sojung felt about her hometown.

Sojung peered through the café window, immediately spotting who she was meeting. She let out a laugh the minute she stepped into the warm establishment.

“What’s with the shades?” She approached the figure hiding away in the corner, flicking off the sunglasses. “You stick out like a sore thumb.”

“Glad to see you haven’t changed one bit.”

The short haired girl stood up, engulfing Sojung in a tight hug. “It really has been too long.”

“I know, Haseul. I’m sorry I haven’t been in contact.”

They took their seats across from each other. “We’ve both been busy with our teams.”

Haseul was Sojung’s oldest friend. They shared a childhood dream to solve mysteries and fight for justice. But after Sojung decided to move to the big city to enroll in the academy, they lost contact.

“My mom told me you have your very own task force here in Busan.” Sojung smiled excitedly, genuinely happy for her friend. “I’m so proud of you.”

Haseul returned the smile, equally as excited. “I’m proud of you, too.”

Juyeon knocked on the door adjacent to hers and Jiyeon’s. She heard Meiqi and Dawon bickering through the walls about which side of the bed they wanted.

“Are you guys decent?”

The door swung open, revealing a very unamused Dawon. “Of course we are, weirdo, why wouldn’t we be?”

Juyeon acted like she didn’t see the unreadable look flash across Meiqi’s face at Dawon’s words. She cleared her throat, addressing the two.

“Let’s bond and go to the gym!”

Dayoung slowly and quietly snuck out of her shared bedroom, careful not to wake a sleeping Yeoreum. They had knocked out the minute they touched down in Busan.

She was craving caffeine.

Sojung’s neighborhood was quite small and quaint, every store or restaurant on the same couple streets in the area. She turned into the local café.

Her eyebrows shot up at Sojung engaging in an over exaggerated conversation with a mystery girl sitting with her back to Dayoung. She immediately was on the defense.

“Sojung!”

That caught the two’s attention, with Sojung immediately waving her over excitedly.

Dayoung walked over, very confused at the situation unfolding. “Haseul, this is my team member Dayoung.”

The short haired girl stood up, extending her hand out for a friendly shake, which Dayoung took with slight hesitation.

“It’s so nice to meet you! I’ve heard nothing but good things about your team.”

Sojung must have noticed the expression on Dayoung’s face, because she heard her leader speak up.

“Haseul is an old friend of mine that I was just catching up with. She heads the Busan task force!”

The gears were finally shifting into place in Dayoung’s mind and she belatedly felt embarrassed at assuming that Sojung was sneaking around behind Hyunjung’s back.

“Wow, that’s amazing!” Dayoung said, trying to sound genuine. “I just came for some coffee, so I’ll leave you two to catch up. It was nice meeting you, Haseul!”

She walked a couple steps away to stand in line, but still in hearing distance of Sojung and her friend.

“When do I get to meet your team?” She heard Sojung joke, but getting a reply from Haseul nonetheless.

“Whenever you want. Maybe our teams could gather together!”

Meiqi, Dawon, and Juyeon entered the local gym. It was a pretty small room with a couple sparring mats and some punching bags off to the side.

A duo, one blonde and one brunette, were engaging in a wrestling match, but it didn’t look serious at all.

“I asked you a million times to stop barking!” They heard the blonde say to the girl she had pinned down. “Are you going to listen to me now?!”

They couldn’t help but look on as the brunette shoved the blonde off, reversing their positions.

“No! Woof!” The brunette laughed, almost maniacally, before pushing herself off the ground. She pulled the blonde girl up with her.

It seemed to finally register in their minds that they had company.

“Oh, hello!” The blonde said, approaching the three of them happily, as if they didn’t just witness the weirdest exchange between the two. “I’m Jinsoul and this is Hyunjin.”

The girl named Hyunjin gave a small wave.

Juyeon watched as Jinsoul’s eyes narrowed at them. “Are you all new to the area? I don’t think I’ve seen you guys around.”

Meiqi spoke up to respond. “We’re just in town for a bit and wanted to get some sparring in.”

Jinsoul gave them a wide smile. “Then you’ve come to the right place.”

Sojung followed Haseul out of the café to head over to the neighborhood gym her team owned for their combat practice. She entered the small room right behind Haseul.

She immediately recognized her own combat unit in the middle of a sparring match with two unfamiliar faces.

“I should have known I’d find you guys here.”

Dawon glanced over at Sojung, dodging a punch thrown her way from Jinsoul. “Boss? What are you doing here?”

Haseul spoke up from beside her. “More team members of yours?”

Sojung smiled and watched on proudly as Juyeon spun around and pinned her opponent to the ground.

“Yes, this is my combat unit.”

Haseul introduced Sojung to her two teammates, noting that their other combat unit member wasn’t there.

She also had a big task force, made up of twelve members including Haseul herself.

“A big team is a lot to handle, right?” Sojung joked when the two of them migrated towards the office in the back, leaving the others to spar some more.

Haseul let out a puff of air. “Tell me about it!”

“It’d be a party if both our teams met up.”

Haseul let out a small laugh before she turned a bit serious. “What exactly are you doing here, Sojung?”

“What do you mean? I’m on a team bonding trip.”

Sojung took a seat on the cheap chair across from the basic wooden desk Haseul took a seat on.

“We both know that’s kind of a lie.”

Sojung went silent and the air around them became tense. Her friend had seen right through her act.

She let out a heavy sigh, deciding to tell some of the truth. “I’m bored, Haseul.”

Haseul gave her a look close to pity. “And you thought coming here would solve your problems?”

“Not really.”

Haseul kept quiet as Sojung stood up, pacing the room as she gathered her thoughts. “I wanted to come back to remember what it felt like to have the drive and the passion behind our jobs.”

The short haired girl nodded, understanding what Sojung was trying to convey to her. “I’m not here to step all over your jurisdiction, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Haseul waved dismissively, pausing before she said her next words. “I was just worried about you.”

Dayoung returned to the house, spotting Hyunjung sitting outside with a book in her hand. “Is this your idea of bonding?”

Hyunjung closed her book, holding it up to shade her from the sun beating down on them. “How can we bond if half the team isn’t even here?”

Dayoung sat down next to the older girl, handing over her coffee. “Fair point.”

They sat in silence for a minute or two before the younger girl spoke up.

“I saw Sojung at the coffee shop. She was with an old friend.” Dayoung took back her coffee, chugging the rest of it. “Her name is Haseul.”

Hyunjung scrunched her eyebrows. She’s never heard that name in relation to Sojung, but she knows she’s seen it somewhere.

She had only momentarily looked at Sojung’s laptop screen earlier that day, but the name she saw in bold lettering caught her attention even for the shortest second.

Haseul.

Sojung and the combat unit came back sweaty and boisterous as they entered the quiet home. They immediately disperses into their respective rooms. Sojung decided to walk to her kitchen for a glass of water.

She heard footsteps following behind her. She turned around to face Hyunjung. Sojung couldn’t read the expression on her wife’s face, but after all the years of being together, she knew this look was at least one of the bad ones.

Sojung sighed before pouring herself a glass of water. “How did you find out?”

Hyunjung kept her arms crossed, not relieving her intimidating stance. “I put two and two together.”

Sojung set her glass of water down and approached Hyunjung, tugging on her arms to grasp her hands.

“I was going to tell you when I knew for sure.” Hyunjung’s eyes wavered for a split second, Sojung clinged onto that regardless. “I swear.”

Her wife gave in and dropped her head onto Sojung’s shoulder, wrapping her arms around her.

“How bad is it?”

Sojung mulled the question over. To anyone else, the question could’ve been about anything, but she knew exactly what Hyunjung was referring to.

“Bad.”

Jiyeon took a seat by the bar. Before the trip, Sojung gave her a specific task. She spotted her target across the room. A tall, fit, young woman with long black hair and piercing eyes. 

Sojung talked about her with such distaste that it made Jiyeon wonder. If Sojung, of all people, hated her, what could she have possibly done to cross her?

She asked her to just watch and not engage. But that was seeming to be proven a bit difficult after a particularly strong drink.

Jiyeon knew the woman had noticed her obvious staring and decided to come up to her at the bar.

“Can I help you?”

Sojung’s words echoed in Jiyeon’s sort of hazy brain.

“No, definitely not.”

And with that, Jiyeon waltzed out of the dingy bar. She was always going to follow Sojung’s orders regardless of the situation she found herself in.

Jiyeon raised her eyebrows as she walked past Sojung and Hyunjung hugging in the kitchen. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to talk to Sojung. She opened the door to her shared room with Juyeon, who was already laying in the bed.

“Hey, where have you been all night?”

She muttered an incoherent response, taking off her shirt and pulling off her pants.

Juyeon sat up, speaking again. “Were you drinking?”

Jiyeon shooed her girlfriend’s words away and flopped onto the bed next to her, immediately cuddling into the taller girl’s side.

“You will tell me in the morning what you were up to tonight.”

The team was scattered around the living room floor, munching on some breakfast Sojung’s mom had made them before she headed out for the day. Sojung and Jiyeon were nowhere to be found though.

Hyunjung raised an eyebrow at Juyeon and she raised one back. She looked around at her friends who were too preoccupied with Yeoreum stabbing at her egg yolk.

Juyeon leaned in closer. “Jiyeon came home drunk last night, do you know anything about that?”

It was really odd and out of character for Jiyeon to go out and drink, nevertheless lose some sense of control.

From the moment they arrived in Busan, nothing seemed to make any sort of sense to Hyunjung. Sojung was keeping things from her, and she held out some patience, but her wife wasn’t budging much.

Juyeon shrugged Hyunjung’s mindless look off as just tiredness from the early morning. She was just going to have to ask her girlfriend when she sees her next.

If it was anyone else, excluding Juyeon of course, Jiyeon would have strangled them for waking her up so early in the morning when she had a hangover. She never drank, so the single vodka sprite she had last night did her dirty.

“What the hell, Sojung?” Jiyeon’s right hand clutched at her head while the other rubbed at her tired eyes. “Where the hell are we?”

Jiyeon looked around. They seemed to be surrounded by wooden walls, almost like a shed. The only source of light being a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room.

“My secret hideout.”

“What are we, twelve?”

Sojung snickered quietly before it faded into a distant smile.

“Apparently so.” Jiyeon mumbled. Sojung pulled out two seat pillows for them to sit on. She looked at Sojung weirdly.

“What’s been up?” Sojung dismissed Jiyeon’s question, instead asking her own.

“What happened last night with Sooyoung?”

Jiyeon paused. “Nothing.” She ignored Sojung’s disappointed look. She decided to try to question her friend again. “What’s been up?”

She watched on, rather impatiently, as Sojung fell onto her back with her hands behind her head. “My father built this for me before he disappeared.”

Jiyeon stiffened. She knew about the story of Sojung’s father, but that was only after some deep digging she had to do on her own time. Sojung never spoke of him.

She was wordless as she watched her friend sit back up again. “I came back here for more reasons than I led on to the team.”

Jiyeon rubbed at her head. “And what are the reasons?” She had a gut feeling on what it could be, but she wanted to ask just to confirm.

“We’re here to figure out what happened to my father.”

Jiyeon slightly froze at the sight of her girlfriend sitting at the edge of their bed, looking like she had been waiting and expecting for her to walk right in.

“Mind telling me now what happened to you last night?”

She lazily wrapped her arms around Juyeon, opting out of straddling her lap for now. “I just had a single drink at the bar.”

“All by yourself?” Jiyeon immediately noticed the flash of jealousy before it faded into a look of concern. “I could have come with you.”

Jiyeon didn’t want to talk about it any longer, out of respect for Sojung’s privacy in the matter of the favor she asked of her.

She leaned in to meet her lips with Juyeon’s. “There’s nothing to worry about.” She ran her fingers through Juyeon’s recently dyed blonde hair.

“There better not be.”

Jiyeon was lying. There was plenty to be worried about.

Sojung had given the team the weekend off until they started some real team bonding.

Juyeon found herself in a small, dimly lit seafood restaurant with Yeoreum. The younger girl had been fidgeting in her seat across from her all night long.

“What’s up with you?” Juyeon smirked as she slurped an oyster. Yeoreum sighed, setting down her fork. She cleared her throat.

“Do you think Dayoung would say yes if I asked her to move in with me?”

Juyeon paused her eating to look at Yeoreum. A look of worry was taking over her face.

Jiyeon had asked Juyeon to move in with her after they got back from their vacation to Turks and Caicos and she had automatically said yes.

It was an easy transition, and a convenient one at that.

“Of course she would, you shouldn’t stress over it.” She reassured Yeoreum and it seemed to lift a visible weight off her shoulder as she started to relax.

They continued to have small talk over their dinner, flagging down a server for their checks afterwards. They left the restaurant to walk along the beach.

Juyeon kicked at the sand under her toes. The weather was cool during the night, but the sand felt nice on her skin.

“Do you ever think about how much changes in a year?”

She looked towards Yeoreum, who was also kicking at the sand. She mulled over the question.

“Yeah, it’s pretty crazy how far we’ve all come.”

A face eating grin took over Yeoreum’s face. “Remember when you and Jiyeon would fight every single day?”

Juyeon looked back on the memory and cringed, the ridiculousness of it all coming back to her, causing her to contort her face.

“We had it rough, but it all worked out.”

Yeoreum sighed and looked up at the stars. “I’m pretty sure that I knew Dayoung was it the moment I met her.”

The blonde knew this story. Dayoung had mentioned it in passing to her one drunken night. She gushed about the “forensics girl” the whole time.

“I think she knew too.”

Sojung didn’t tell her to, but Jiyeon went back to the same bar. And brought Luda with her.

“How do you know of this place?” Luda looked back at the older girl as she pushed open the front door.

Jiyeon shrugged. “Stumbled upon it the other night. It’s chill.” She quickly scanned the open floor. It was still early for the bar to be packed, but her eyes landed on someone.

Luda walked off to get the bartender’s attention. Jiyeon teared her eyes away, looking distractedly at her nails to pretend she wasn’t just staring at the girl from the other night.

“I would think you’re stalking me by now.”

There were two ways to go about this, Jiyeon thought. The first, act dumb. The second, be up front.

“I’m not. I just like this bar.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Luda looking at her from across the room. She looked pointedly at the girl in front of Jiyeon, as if asking who she was.

“I’m Sooyoung.”

Jiyeon looked uninterestingly at the girl’s outstretched hand.

Sooyoung retracted her hand after a beat and took a step closer, lowering her voice to a whisper. “I’ll let you get back to your girlfriend.” 

If she wasn’t just the slightest bit put off, Jiyeon would have actually laughed at the idea of this girl thinking Luda was her girlfriend.

Sooyoung walked away and Jiyeon approached Luda with a smirk, grabbing the drink she was handing to her.

“What the hell was that all about?”

Jiyeon finally released her laughter. “She thought you were my girlfriend.”

Luda spluttered out her drink. “Who even was she?”

This is where Jiyeon acts dumb. “Don’t know.” She mumbled, taking a chug of her drink to avoid Luda’s suspicious eyes.

“Whatever, just don’t let me get too wasted tonight.” Luda mentions before she flags down the bartender for another drink, along with a shot.

Meiqi fell back onto the bed, out of breathe.

“Do you think the others know by now that we’ve been sleeping together?”

She felt Dawon turn her head to look at her. “Of course they do.” Meiqi’s stomach churned, nerves settling, but not because of the prospect of the others knowing.

They had the house to themselves for a quick hour. Everyone had grouped up to go hang out in the town, Meiqi and Dawon opting to stay back and “keep watch over the house”.

Sojung had looked at the two strangely before closing the front door on them.

“Dawon, what are we doing?”

She felt the girl in question snuggling into her neck, peppering soft kisses all over it. “Round two.”

Meiqi softly shoved Dawon back and got up from the bed. “No. I mean, what are we doing?” The sound of her heart beat sped up just a little bit.

“Round... two?

There was a long pause. “I’m sick of you.” And without another word, Meiqi left the room, an utterly speechless Dawon just staring at the empty space she left behind.

“Who said this was a good idea?!” Chengxiao groaned as she dusted off her legs.

“You did, silly!”

Chengxiao and Xuanyi were kneeling behind a hedge across the street from the bar Soobin had just walked into. The trio had wandered around town in hopes to find something interesting to spy on.

The girls were curious about detective field work, so they grabbed a pair of binoculars before leaving the house. Soobin had volunteered herself as the subject.

Xuanyi watched through the magnified lenses as a girl approached Soobin, stifling a laugh as she watched the younger girl freeze.

“Look, some hot girl is trying to talk to Soobin already!”

Chengxiao quickly grabbed the binoculars to see for her own. “Holy crap, she’s pretty.”

Her hand twitched, losing her focus on Soobin and onto the crowd of people at the bar. She spotted a familiar duo.

“What the... Jiyeon and Luda are in there too?!”

Xuanyi didn’t even bother to take back the binoculars, opting to just stand up and squint her eyes from across the road.

“We’re going in.”

Jiyeon was grimacing as she watched Luda down three shots one after another. She was not fit to control a drunk Lee Luda. She yelped as she felt hands on her shoulders.

“Hey guys!” Xuanyi beamed from behind her, Chengxiao standing next to her waving a hand.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Chengxiao looked around the bar for a second, finally pointing across the room. “We’re here with Soobin.”

Jiyeon’s gaze followed her finger to Soobin and the girl from before, Sooyoung. She resisted rolling her eyes. She obviously had Soobin wrapped around her finger already.

Before she could mention anything, she felt Xuanyi leaning to whisper into her ear. “Luda’s going to hate you in the morning.”

Jiyeon groaned as she watched Chengxiao try to pull another full shot glass out of Luda’s hands.

Yeonjung breathed in the fresh, ocean air. “Nothing like the beach at night, especially Haeundae.”

“Right? The weather is just perfect.”

Dayoung and Yeonjung were sitting outside at a cafe on the second floor of a building. The view overlooked the water.

“I can’t believe Sojung would want to leave a town as beautiful as this.”

Dayoung mulled over her words, holding her coffee mug up to her mouth with both her hands.

“Do you know much about what happened in her past?”

Yeonjung furrowed her eyebrows, staring back at Dayoung. “No idea, you?”

“Not much.”

They both took another sip of coffee during the moment of silence.

“Something real bad must have happened for her to leave.” Dayoung stayed quiet, no longer wanting to indulge in this topic. She knew all that she needed to know about Sojung’s father, unbeknownst to Sojung herself.

It was like that for most of them though. Detectives get curious and eventually dig into certain secrets or pasts that desperately want to be forgotten.

Dayoung swiftly changed the subject. “Have you ever been to Busan?”

Yeonjung nodded, a faint smile on her face. “My parents took me here for my fourth birthday.”

Luda slammed the door of the taxi. She had her sunglasses on, but was still squinting up at the morning sun. “Tell me why I agreed to come with you to snoop.”

Yeonjung shuffled over to Luda to shush her. “We’re not here to snoop!”

They were standing in front of the town hall. After her conversation with Dayoung the night before, she couldn’t quite get the curiosity out of her system.

“We are so here to snoop.”

Yeonjung scowled at her as they walked throw shelves and shelves of documents and books.

“I’m not sure if I want to know.” Luda confessed quietly. “It’s her business.”

The younger girl looked at her, noticing the sudden hesitance from Luda. “Let’s make a deal. If we find something crazy, we’ll just forget about it. Deal?”

Luda nodded, taking off her sunglasses to get started on the computer provided. She clicked away on the keys while Yeonjung picked some documents to spread out onto the table.

“Wait, do we even know what to look for?”

This time, Sojung was being dragged to her secret hideout by Jiyeon. It was the early morning, to avoid the curious looks they would surely receive from their other members.

“What’s the deal?” Sojung grumbled out, still in her pink pajamas. She rubbed at her eyes, cracking them open only to squint in the morning sunlight.

Jiyeon paused, choosing to carefully word her next statement. “Soobin might have interacted with that Sooyoung girl at the bar last night.”

It might have been the sleep deprivation or the early morning, but Sojung could have sworn she was imagining this whole conversation right now. Jiyeon realized the other girl wasn’t going to speak anytime soon so she elaborated.

“Sooyoung was flirting with Soobin.”

Sojung let out a loud groan and fell face forward into the seat cushions. She let out a mini scream of frustration before she quickly sat back up. “Abort. Abort mission.”

“What mission?” Sojung ignored her, scrambling to stand up to head back to the house. Jiyeon repeated herself, only to receive a dismissive wave. She watched as Sojung sleepily stumbled back into the house.

Jiyeon rarely ever did this, but she decided it was time to do some snooping of her own.

It was late at night and Sojung was walking home from the convenience store. Her father had asked to grab some milk for the morning, and her mother was already sound asleep. 

She saw a figure coming towards her, head down and hands covering their face. They got closer and Sojung immediately recognized who it was. “Sooyoung?” It was her best friend with tears streaming down her face. 

Sojung grabbed her shoulders, but Sooyoung quickly broke free, muttering an apology with a heartbreaking voice before she fled down the street. It was so out of character for Sooyoung that it left Sojung dumbstruck and frozen. She could only watch her friend disappear around the corner.

She wouldn’t understand what all that was about until she got home a few moments later. A note was taped on their front door. 

Do not look for me.

Chills ran down her whole body, and then panic set in as she tore down the note and threw their front door open, shouting for her father. It was evident that he was gone, but something inside of her wished this wasn’t happening. 

She knew who to blame. She knew who was at fault. 

Her best friend had ratted out her father. 

Sojung stared out at her childhood neighborhood from the rooftop of her family house. The stars were especially bright that night, as if they knew Sojung was outside, seeking them out. She felt arms wrapping around her waist from behind.

“What are you thinking about?” She felt Hyunjung whisper into her ear. Sojung mulled over her thoughts. It felt like there were millions going a mile a minute. She tried her best to just empty out her mind.

“Nothing.” Sojung more so felt than heard her wife sigh. “But, I was thinking we all can go on a camping trip for a couple days in the mountains.”

Hyunjung flipped her around, raising her eyebrows at the sudden suggestion. “I bet you half of them would be against that idea.” Sojung let out a laugh before she swung an arm over her wife’s shoulder, leading them back into the house.

“They’ll do whatever I say.”

When Sojung suggested they take an impromptu camping trip up in the mountains, the members looked around and met each others eyes. Hyunjung had a creeping feeling that this plan was just an elaborate excuse. From what? She has no idea. But she surely wasn’t going to mention it in front of everybody, especially not to her own wife.

Being back in Busan, everybody’s focus seemed to be shifted onto their leader. They couldn’t seem to turn off their running thoughts and curiosity about Sojung’s prior life. They all knew, but they didn’t at the same time.

“And we’ll be having the Busan task force join us.”

Now that was something new.


	2. Act 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the last part of the wjsn installment :’)

It seemed like a good idea, then, to Sojung when her and Haseul planned out a combined camping trip. But the further she thought about it, twenty five girls in the wilderness was kind of a recipe for disaster. But, it was too late now.

They were gathered out front of the Busan headquarters. They were going to take two vans up to the campsite, splitting the task forces into each of the vans to encourage their teams to form a bond. Or at least that’s what Sojung hoped for most. It didn’t hurt to have the other task force as an ally.

The forensic and tech units were put into one van, while combat and detective unit were put into the other one. Sojung was glad to see that some of the members were familiar and getting along with each other already. Their van was already shaking with noise and a friendly competition of arm wrestling. She glanced behind her to address Haseul, who looked just as amused about all the ruckus.

“Is it just me or are you regretting this trip already?”

“Oh, it’s definitely not just you.”

Sojung scanned the van once more, displeased to see a certain someone sitting way up front with the blonde she came to know as Jinsoul. It seemed like she was avoiding having to interact with the others.

There must be a reason, a really good reason, that Haseul would ever recruit the girl who flipped Sojung’s world upside down. She was convinced all these years that she played a part in her father’s disappearance and was never innocent, but she could never find concrete proof.

She hopes they don’t have to cross paths at the camp site.

Dayoung quickly bonds with a member of the detective unit that happens to be the same age as her, Kim Jungeun. It wasn’t often that she met someone her age in the field, but what shocked her more is that they had a member who was younger than them by a year, Jeon Heejin.

She smirks when she deduces pretty quickly on who has the hots for who. Things like this kept her mind entertained for the long car ride, but she had the whole trip to figure everyone out.

Dayoung looked across the aisle to Jiyeon with her headphones in, smiling softly at Juyeon who threw a fist in the air after winning an intense round of rock paper scissors with the other members of the combat unit.

She turned back to address her fellow detectives, stopping before she says anything when she sees Heejin shyly looking in Hyunjin’s direction. Hyunjin was the girl Juyeon had talked to her about, raving about how she was such a good sparring partner.

Huh. She really thought Heejin would be more into the serious, non goofy types.

Jungeun seems to have caught onto Dayoung’s train of thought as she looks at who her eyes are shifting between. A grin forms on her face as she leans in to whisper into Dayoung’s ear.

“She has the fattest crush on her.”

Halfway through the ride, someone whipped out a guitar and started to strum. All eyes land on Haseul. Sojung’s eyes light up while the rest of her team members stare at the other leader curiously.

Childhood memories flashed of her and Haseul, where she played the piano while Haseul strummed away on a guitar that was far too big for the then small girl. It was a welcome distraction from the looming nightmare surrounding her father’s shady lifestyle.

“It’s time for some campfire songs!”

Jungeun playfully scoffs and speaks up. “We’re not even there yet.”

Another strum came from the opposite side of the van, this time from Heejin. “I’m with you, Haseul!”

An idea pops into Dayoung’s head. “Care for a friendly sing-off?”

The other van, holding the tech and forensics unit of both teams, is awfully quiet. Half of them are asleep, and the other half on gaming devices or laptops, tapping away codes for fun. The air was harmonious even when none of them spoke.

Yeonjung peeked over the seat in front of her, noticing Luda slamming her keys haphazardly to try and destroy some monster creeping up towards her game character. The girl next to her was playing a similar game, although it seemed like she was having a successful run.

She cleared her throat, grabbing her teammates attention after she had slammed her laptop shut out of frustration.

“We should talk.” Luda rested her head back onto the seat, looking up at the younger girl. “We still need to comb through the info on the usb.”

The shorter girl peeked around. “Right now? How come we can’t do it after the camping trip?” Yeonjung nervously tapped her foot. There was a certain feeling she would always get whenever she felt like she had obtained crucial information. Her gut instincts were right nine out of ten times.

She was feeling it now. There was something on the hard drive that was important and that they needed to know as soon as possible.

“Yes, I need your help.”

Jiyeon’s eyes fluttered open, feeling a sudden weight on her shoulder. She was a light sleeper, always being on edge and all. It was rare when she would get a good rest without any interruptions, but Juyeon made nights easier. She tried to look around the van without moving her body to disturb her girlfriend.

Sojung and Hyunjung were speaking lowly, and Jiyeon could tell by the looks on their faces that it was an argument. Years worth of being by their side, she knew when the couple had tense vibes between them. Now that she thought about it, things hadn’t been going well between the two since they got to Busan.

Her eyes raked over the other members of the Busan task force, breaking a small smile at Dayoung making friends. She landed on long, blonde locks. Jiyeon thought back to a random memory where she had blonde hair for a short period of time. Maybe she should try it again.

Sooyoung was sitting next to the blonde girl. Things were weird, Jiyeon thought Sooyoung was shady. Not just because Sojung said so, but that there was something the girl was hiding, that much was true.

When Sooyoung saw her while she boarded the van, a look flashed across her face. It was almost like she already knew who Jiyeon was. That she was a part of Sojung’s task force.

Despite Sojung telling her she could stop, Jiyeon decided to look further into Sooyoung. Her record was clean, too clean, but that was just on paper. She spent a day walking around town, asking the elderly, kids, employees, on what kind of person she was. Of course she did all this discreetly.

But you can only be so discreet in a small town.

“Luda, have you ever seen a code like this?” The girl in question shook her head, a grave look on her face. “What do you think it could mean?”

“Not anything good.”

On the screen, there was a file pulled up with a bunch of numbers. To a normal person’s eye, it would look completely random, but to a hacker’s eye, it was a beautiful code. All Luda knew was that if it was this well crafted, it was bad news.

“I’ll get started on a decoding algorithm.”  
After a couple clicks on her keyboard, she heard someone speak up behind them.

“Don’t bother. I know what the code means.” Luda froze, Yeonjung turning her head to the small voice. Wide eyes and blonde hair peaked over the seat, smile wide as she looked down at their laptops.

“I’m Chaewon.”

“Meiqi, I said I was sorry.” The girl in question had her eyes shut and arms crossed. There was no way she was going to succumb to Dawon’s puppy eyes and pout. That was her weakness, something that would break her.

“Don’t talk to me for the rest of the trip.”

Dawon gasped, but it was playful, much to Meiqi’s annoyance. “The camping trip? Or the whole trip in general?” Meiqi swatted in the air, frustration lining her brows.

“Make it the rest of the entire trip!”

Juyeon stared at her unit members from across the van. The vibes were all wrong between Meiqi and Dawon, and she hoped it wouldn’t affect how they worked.

They were pulling up to the campsite. Juyeon nudged Jiyeon awake, knowing full well that her girlfriend wasn’t actually asleep. They filed off the bus, coming face to face with the rest of their teams from the other van.

Xuanyi sat on a log, scowling as she watched the Busan tech unit set up their “glamping” tent, fully equipped with laptops, a tv, a proper bed, and a mini fridge. How are they even powering everything?

She looked over to her right, seeing Sojung struggling to keep their small tent upright. Xuanyi heaved out a sigh, throwing the small stick in her hand to the ground and resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

“Hey, boss. Need some help?”

Sojung didn’t even look up, her eyes focused on the task in front of her. Xuanyi had never been camping before, never ever set up a tent either, but she was willing to help to take them out of their misery.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Now go help someone else!”

Whew. Sojung sure was stubborn when she wanted to be, Xuanyi thought teasingly. She moved towards the campfire, approaching one of the Busan members to introduce herself.

“Hey, I’m Xuanyi.”

The girl looked up from the fire she just started, raising her eyebrow in curiosity. “Are you Chinese?” Xuanyi nodded slowly, wondering why she was asking. “Vivi, I’m also Chinese!”

Xuanyi smiled, elated that she found yet another person to bond with. She looked around to see if she could find Xiao and Meiqi. “We have more Chinese members!”

Vivi pouted, being the only foreign member on her team felt kind of lonely sometimes, but her members tried hard to make her feel at home. “It’s just me on our team.” Xuanyi frowned, reaching out to grab Vivi’s hand, instantly feeling a connection.

“You have us now!” Vivi giggled at how easily Xuanyi seemed to have accepted her. Maybe they do things differently up in Seoul. Busan seemed a bit more hardcore.  
But she was happy to have been welcomed anyway.

After setting up her own tent with Jiyeon Juyeon went to go offer some help setting up Hyunjin and Jinsol’s tent. They looked completely lost, all the bars sticking out of the tent in weird ways. She couldn’t help but laugh at the two. Juyeon can definitely vibe with them.

“How about you guys just sit and watch me, the master, do it.” She said with her chest puffed out. They gladly let her take over and within ten minutes, their tent was set up.

Hyunjin bounced up and clapped gleefully while Jinsol had an impressed look on her face. “Well done, master.” She mocked teasingly, earning a swat on the shoulder from Juyeon.

The three of them entered the semi big tent and took a seat on the blanket they lazily tossed on. “You guys should visit the city some time and check out our gym, I’m sure it beats the small one you guys go to now.”

“It’s been a while since we’ve been there.” Hyunjin wistfully whispered, her eyes focusing on her feet. Her chin was placed on her knees as she hugged her legs close to her. “Pretty much half the team moved down here from Seoul.”

Jinsol hummed in agreement and the atmosphere turned a bit somber. Juyeon was curious though. “What made you guys move?”

Hyunjin looked up at Jinsol, signaling with her eyes that she can speak first. “I met Sooyoung by chance in the city, and she told me they were recruiting.” The blonde coughed awkwardly at Hyunjin raising her eyebrows. That definitely wasn’t the full story, but Juyeon didn’t notice the exchange.

“Heejin and I traveled to Busan a lot.” There was a lot these girls were holding back, Juyeon quickly figured out, but she was fine with not pushing them about it.

“Well, when you guys do visit, drinks are on me.” Juyeon grinned, earning two big, goofy smiles back.

The night was still young, but all the tents were finally set up and the two teams were gathered around a rather large bonfire. Everyone was seated next to each other in a circle pretty randomly. The guitars were brought back out, music drifting into the background while the members conversed amongst each other.

Sojung looked around at each one of her team members. She never really thought to bring them back to her hometown, but here they were. It was bittersweet, the reason why she was there in the first place, but she was glad the team had her back. Her eyes trailed over the fire and into a set of eyes staring right back at her.

The summers in Busan were overwhelmingly hot, this year was no exception. Sojung loved how the sun didn’t set until after nine o’clock. The sunsets seemed to last for hours. She was taking her daily stroll through the streets in front of her neighborhood, lazily checking up and down the alleyways for stray cats she could feed table scraps. Until she heard hushed yelling around the corner.

She hid around the corner market and peeked her head around. There were three figures, girls, and one she knew immediately. Sojung strained her ears to figure out what they were talking about, and she had a feeling it wasn’t good by the look on Sooyoung’s face.

“You know what you have to do.” One of the hooded figures said in an accent she couldn’t pinpoint. It sounded like she was from a foreign country, but still Korean? Sojung scooted a little closer, as if it would help more.

The figure to the left spoke up, she had solid pronunciation, but she wasn’t from Busan. “You have until-“ The brick Sojung was standing on top of loosened and slipped right from under her, causing them to halt their conversation. “We’ll be in contact.” And before Sojung could stand back up, embarrassed, only her friend was left remaining, as if the other two had disappeared into thin air.

Sooyoung just stared at her, a lift of her eyebrows, and turned to leave. Sojung scratched her head, endless questions running around in her mind, but she knew better not to ask. Sooyoung was her best friend, yet there was a mysterious way about her Sojung could never quite figure out.

Sojung sighed and got up from her spot, stepping away from the festivities and into the forest near her tent. She looked up at the sky and awed over the millions of stars she was never able to see back in Seoul. “Hey, what’s up?” Sojung eyes closed at the sound of her wife’s soft voice. “And before you say nothing, just know that I could see right through it. I don’t have to be a detective to notice that you’ve had a lot on your mind since we got here.”

The air around them blew, rustling the tree branches above them. It was eerily quiet on the outskirts of their campsite, even though they were being quite boisterous next to the campfire. Sojung juggled the thought of coming clean or giving up another excuse, but there would be no reason for all of that.  
Just as she was about to lay out all her truths to Hyunjung, her phone pinged with a text. Her eyebrows furrowed as she pulled up a message from Yeonjung. Her wife sighed, defeatedly with a hint of annoyance, and wandered back to the others.

Need to talk. Emergency.

Sojung looked up from her phone and notice something whizzing by in her peripheral, and then a loud crunch noise in the distance. Her eyes widened, realizing that something was terribly wrong.

Yeonjung and Luda had talked to Chaewon the entire time since they started speaking on the bus. The three hacker nerds had lots in common and much to talk about, but the code they found had been weighing on Yeonjung’s mind.

“Chaewon, you said you’ve seen this code before?”

The blonde girl’s smile suddenly faded into a soft look of worry. “I know that our team sees it every now and then, but we’ve never been able to trace it back to the person. It’s a sort of signature.” Then her face changed into a look of curiosity. “Where did you guys find it?”

Luda was about to answer when Yeonjung quickly interjected. “Hey Chaewon, do you want another s’more? Luda and I will go grab the marshmallows!”

Yeonjung dragged Luda to the other side of the meeting circle. “What was that all about?” The smaller girl scoffed out. The younger girl swiftly observed their surroundings, noticing Sojung and Hyunjung talking near the forest.

“If the Busan task force can’t trace it, what makes you think we can?” Yeonjung rolled her eyes at the smug look on Luda’s face. “Don’t say anything.” The shorter girl shrugged and grabbed a pack of marshmallows to take back to the Chaewon.

Yeonjung stood their for a minute in deep thought. If the code was some sort of signature of the criminal, and the Busan task force has seen it around more than once... But they found the code snooping around evidence surrounding Sojung’s father’s disappearance? Does that mean they criminals who were involved back then are still active now? Piece by piece, it clicked in Yeonjung’s mind.

Sojung calmly made it back over to the campfire, grabbing Yeonjung and pulling her aside. “I got your text, but make it quick, we’ve got company.”

The younger girl looked at her with wide eyes. “That’s just it, Sojung. I think I have an idea who.”

Sojung gave Yeonjung instructions and waved Jiyeon over. “Tell me later, but for now, try and get everyone back onto the buses.” She watched as Yeonjung gathered up some of the girls. She caught Juyeon’s confused eyes just as Yeonjung approached her for help.

“What’s up?” Jiyeon asked, flipping around to follow Sojung’s eyes as she scanned the perimeter.

“Please tell me you brought your weapon.” Jiyeon reached down to pull up her pants, revealing a gun strapped to her ankle.

A dark feeling swirled around in the pit of Jiyeon’s stomach at Sojung’s blank face and calculating eyes. She watched as she popped into her tent, coming out with a smoke bomb and her weapon. “Why did you bring that?!”

Sojung shrugged, “in case of an emergency?”  
Jiyeon’s left eyebrow lifted up, finally coming to the conclusion that something was definitely wrong.

“How many?”

“Two, but I have a feeling they have back up.”

Yeonjung and Juyeon got their teammates and the Busan task force back onto one of the buses, confusion swirling around them. Juyeon turned to Yeonjung and spoke in a low voice. “What’s going on?”

With their heads turned away, Sooyoung snuck off the bus, and back onto the campsite, with Haseul following close behind unbeknownst to her.

“Sojung said were about to be ambushed, I’ll get everyone back to Busan headquarters, grab Dayoung and go help them out.” The tall girl nodded and bounded down the stairs of the bus with the young detective.

Jiyeon dumped a bucket of water over the fire, wiping out their light source. Without the moon shining down on them through the rustling tree branches, it would have been pitch black outside. They were taking their sweet time ambushing them, or was Sojung just paranoid? Was what she saw a mistake?

Just as soon as she questioned her best friend’s instincts, a grenade rolled ten feet to the left of her. Jiyeon felt a hand wrap around her upper arm, pulling her into the bushes nearby and hovering over her in protection.

The explosion made the ground shake and their ears ring. “Are you okay?” Jiyeon strained to hear none other than Juyeon right behind her. She nodded quickly and they looked across the campsite to see Dayoung and Sojung together. Not soon after, there were gunshots raining down on them. Jiyeon squinted towards the source, seeing Sooyoung running in the distance. She was heading in the direction of where their attackers would be.

“Holy crap.”

Sojung feels a body dive in next to her. “Haseul?! What are you doing, get back to the bus!” The short haired girl scoffed, raising her voice over all the noise of the gunfire.

“I was following Sooyoung!” Haseul pointed ahead of them. “And this is my jurisdiction!” Sojung followed her line of sight, her blood running cold at the sight of Sooyoung heading straight into the crossfire.

Without thinking, she got up and ran after her.

After a few moments of straight gunfire coming down on them, it was silent. Sojung finally reached an open section of the forest a couple hundred feet from their campsite. The view in front of her felt oddly familiar, a sense of deja vu. Sooyoung and two hooded figures.

Except the two hooded figures had guns pointing at Sooyoung. For the second time that night, Sojung threw all thought out the window and ran in front of Sooyoung.

“Well, look who it is.”

That accent, Sojung has heard it before.

“What are you doing?!” Sooyoung angrily whispered into her ear. Chills ran down her spine. Sojung stayed silent and focused on the girls in front of her.

“We came here for Sooyoung.”

Again, another familiar voice.

“Not without going through me.” Sojung said without a beat. She had no idea what came over her, this sudden need to protect someone she hated for years. But she swore as a detective to keep people safe. And she knew deep down, that Sooyoung wasn’t just anyone to her.

They took off their hoods, revealing faces Sojung hadn’t seen in years. Jennie and Jisoo. She should have known, from the accents. Back then, they were just new students at her old school before moving to the academy. She had seen them talk to Sooyoung a couple of times, but it never really looked friendly.

Come to think of it, the last time she remembered hearing their voices was in the alleyway with Sooyoung all those summers ago.

Sojung felt Sooyoung pushing her aside, but she stood her ground. “Let them take me!”

“Not without going through me!”

Jisoo sighed, looking slightly irritated. “What a waste of time.” She singsonged while circling around them, swinging her handgun around.

Jennie held up her gun and pointed it towards Sojung.

“As you wish.”

Dayoung ran through the woods to catch up to the voices in the distance, a voice that sounded like Sojung’s. And then a gunshot echoed throughout the forest. She picked up the pace when she heard the engine of a truck revving. It was getting away just as she reached the clearing.

There was a pool of blood, but no body left behind. She managed to get the license plate number, but she couldn’t get to Sojung in time. She knew they had to act fast if they ever wanted to see their leader again.

“Where are they?!” Haseul appeared next to her, worry etched on her face. That’s when it struck Dayoung. Sooyoung was with Sojung. They had each other.

Sojung stared out into the ocean. The once tranquil view seemed too tumultuous to her now that her father was gone. Staying in this small town, her neighborhood, felt suffocating. Against her mother’s wishes, she was moving to the city, Seoul. She never thought she would leave her hometown or become one of those people who sought out more in the world, but maybe it was time for a change of mind. Change of scenery. She wished that Busan was enough for her, but it reminded her too much of her father.

“Will we meet again?” She heard a voice from behind her ask. Sojung smiled softly to herself, turning around to face them.

“I’m sure we’ll meet again, Haseul.” And she was sure. That someday their paths will cross. Leaving all the memories and the friends that she has made felt bittersweet, but her future looked like the light at a very long, dark tunnel.

Sojung was ready to join the academy, someplace where she will grow and be taught skills to fight the injustice around them. To have the ability to help people find peace among all the chaos, meant a lot to her. Her father would be proud, she was doing it for him.

A door slammed in the distance and a bag was pulled off her head. The throbbing in her leg was like no pain she ever felt, and her vision was blurry. She was out of it.

“Sojung!” She heard Sooyoung yell from some distance in front of her. Sojung groaned in response, her head swinging forward. There was a man circling her chair, slowly with heavy steps.

He finally paused in front of her and crouched down, reaching her eye level. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” Sojung tried her best to make out the face of the man in front of her, but she could not recognize him. Her spotty vision did not help either. “You can call me Shownu.”

The name sounded oddly familiar to her, but her mind was elsewhere. She couldn’t focus on anything but her leg.

“Leave her alone!” Sooyoung tried her hardest to shake herself free from the restraints, but to no avail. Shownu didn’t flinch at all, instead he stared harder into Sojung’s blinking eyes.

“Where’s your father?”

The air around them thickened, and it wasn’t because of the heater that was obviously on full blast. Sojung’s vision cleared and she could see that they were in some sort of warehouse. Sooyoung was ten feet across from her, tied similarly to a chair like she was. She finally looked back at the strange man in front of her.

“Huh?”

Shownu sighed and heaved himself up, pulling out a gun and staring at it as he flipped it around in his hand. He started to pace back in forth in front of her, tapping the barrel of his gun to his chin as he looked deep in thought.

“How about you tell me where your father is, and I don’t shoot your other leg?”

“She doesn’t know! Leave her alone!” Sooyoung yelled out once more, furiously rattling in her chair. Nothing was making any sense and it made Sojung feel dizzy. Who was this guy?

Shownu finally turned towards Sooyoung, a slight look of annoyance covering his facial features. He twirled his gun and aimed it at her. “Maybe I’ll shoot you if she doesn’t tell me where he is.”

The second the others caught up to their teams at the Busan headquarters, questions were swarming around.

“What the hell happened?”

“Where’s Sojung and Sooyoung?”

Hyunjung pulled Haseul to the side while Dayoung and Juyeon tried to settle everyone down. “What did she get herself into?” Haseul hesitated and gulped, worry etching into her eyebrows. “Tell me what happened, now.”

Just as Haseul was about to open her mouth to explain, Jiyeon pulled Hyunjung away. “What the hell, Jiyeon?!”

“It’s bad, Hyunjung.” The look on her friend’s face was grim. She had never seen Jiyeon this serious, and the girl was always serious.

“Alright, everyone, listen up!” Haseul bellowed among the chaos. “Tech and forensics, you guys stay behind and be our eyes and ears.” The short haired girl glanced at Hyunjung, looking away quickly, almost as if she was scared of her. “Combat unit, detectives, follow Jiyeon.” The Busan task force leader watched as everyone dispersed.

Just as Hyunjung reached the entrance, she was pulled back by a soft grip on her wrist. “You have to stay here.” Haseul’s voice was so gentle, it almost swayed Hyunjung.

“Im going with!” She tried to fight the leader, but she wasn’t budging. It came across her mind that Haseul was the head of the task force for a reason. “She’s my wife.” Her eyes started to well with tears. She was going to kill Sojung herself for getting into this mess if she wasn’t gone already.

She had to go.

Another door slammed, but it was followed by a round of gunshots this time. Jisoo ran in, frantically shooting back with her automatic weapons. Sojung was still fading in and fading out, but Sooyoung was high on alert.

“Boss, the FBI is here.” Jisoo loudly warned Shownu, who looked very displeased about what was going on. He looked at the girls who were restrained and pondered for a moment. “Boss, please, we got to go now! They already got Jennie.”

Sojung had no idea who called in the cavalry, but she was thanking the heavens above for the perfect timing of it all. It almost seemed too good to be true. Maybe she was started to hallucinate from the amount of pain her body was in.

“Until next time, ladies.” Shownu’s words sent chills down their spines. And without another word, the two crooks left through the back door the moment the FBI barged into the warehouse.

The next few moments were a blur. Sojung felt a needle in her neck, and what sounded like a shriek coming from Sooyoung before her eye sight faded into complete darkness.

Sojung’s eyes fluttered open. She was staring at a white ceiling that felt too bright, but the walls around her were just as white, if not brighter than the ceiling. She was laying on a hospital bed. Restrained. But her leg was all wrapped up and she only felt a slight numbness throughout her body.

She looked to her left, spotting Sooyoung in a regular bed, staring right back at her. “You’re awake.” Sojung groaned as she tried to sit up. Her head felt like a two ton weight was crushing it.

Before the girls could exchange more words, a man in a white doctor’s coat walked in. “We apologize for the dramatics. We just had to be cautious.”

“Where are we?”

“FBI safe house, or hospital, I guess.” The doctor said without looking up from the clipboard in his hand. “You took a pretty bad shot to the leg, but we got there just in time to save it from irreversible damage.”

Sojung gaped at the random doctor standing in front of her who relayed the news about her leg. “How did you guys find us?” She heard Sooyoung ask.

“You’re going to have to ask him.” Again, without looking up, another man entered the room at the same time the doctor pointed over his shoulder.

“Hello, girls.”

There was a long pause, a dead silence.

“Father?”

Just as Haseul stepped out of the precinct, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She stared at the message, recognizing the number.

We got them. Stand down.

She swiveled around, checking the adjacent buildings out of habit. “Guys, hold up.” Hyunjung was the first to appear by her side.

“Did something happen? Why are we wasting time?” Jiyeon grasped her shoulder for comfort, but also to hold her back from getting all up in Haseul’s face again.

“I’ve just received information on there whereabouts. They are under protection, but for now, we just have to wait.”

Everyone started mumbling and whispering, wondering what this whole thing was about. There was too much back and forth, none of it felt legit.

“How do you know?” Dayoung questioned after being awfully quiet in the back, just watching everything unfold in front of her. “Is there something you know that we don’t?”

The atmosphere turned uncomfortable and some of the members trickled back into the precinct. Only the detectives of Sojung’s team stayed behind to stare Haseul down.

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

They continued to stare at her, a bit unnervingly, especially Hyunjung. Haseul sighed and spoke again.

“It’s classified.”

Sojung stared at the man in front of her. It was her father, but fast forwarded nearly a decade. He had grey hair and the wrinkles around his eyes had intensified. But it still felt like seeing a ghost.

“How-how is this possible?”

He pulled up a chair across from the two of them and sighed. He ran his hand through his hair and looked into Sojung’s eyes. There was tiredness and stress behind his look, but a hint of happiness glistening in them. He glanced towards Sooyoung and gave them a tight lipped smile.

“After Sooyoung warned me, I tried to disappear.” He stood from his chair and paced around the room. “Shownu found me, but the FBI managed to save me.”

Sojung was reeling from the day’s events, but this was information overload. She turned towards Sooyoung, who had her head down. All this time, Sojung had blamed her childhood friend for her father’s disappearance, when in actuality, she tried to help him. She owed Sooyoung a huge apology.

“I’ve been under witness protection ever since.”

It explained why he was gone for so long with no trace or communication to their family, but what didn’t make sense was his ties to the mysterious criminals she had the displeasure of meeting.

Sojung shifted her attention back to her father, who had sat back down with his arms crossed. “What does Shownu want from you?”

He looked deep in thought, uncrossing his arms but clasping his hands instead. The door opened just as he turned his head towards it. The person stayed at the door, watching Sojung’s father carefully. He got up from his chair again and carefully approached the side of the bed.

“It was nice to see you again, sweetheart.”

Sojung closed her eyes as he gently patted her head. This felt so surreal. She really couldn’t believe it. She opened her eyes when she felt him moving away. She watched as he gave Sooyoung a firm pat on the shoulder.

“Thank you, Sooyoung.”

And with that, he went out the door. Sojung didn’t know if she’d ever see him again.

Haseul waited, impatiently, for the dark van to roll to a stop in the back alley of the precinct. She let out a breathe of relief when she saw Sojung and Sooyoung getting out. The second they slid the door shut, the van drove off. Haseul jogged towards them, engulfing them in a huge hug.

“We were all worried sick!” Sojung locked eyes with Sooyoung and gave her a small smile, which was returned.

“We were fine, Haseul.” Sooyoung said in a soothing tone, patting her leader’s back comfortingly.

Haseul broke away from the hug first and her face turned serious. “Let’s go to my office. We have matters to discuss.”

Sooyoung and Sojung sat in front of a sleek, black desk. Haseul had framed goofy pictures all around her office. She even had one with the three of them before everything hit the fan.

Haseul stayed standing, gripping the back of her cushy chair instead. “A few years ago, I got a call from the FBI.” Sojung leaned forward, interested in what her friend had to say. Sooyoung looked like she already knew what Haseul was talking about.

“They found out we were chasing a ghost.” Haseul paused, for dramatic effect probably, Sojung thought to herself. Her friend could be quite theatrical when it came to storytelling. “The same ghost they were chasing.”

Sojung nodded her head to let Haseul know she was following, although she was quite confused as to how it would be relevant to the events that transpired earlier.

“They found the ghost’s pawn: Shownu.” One by one, piece by piece, the information lined up in Sojung’s mind. Her father was in hiding because of this mysterious criminal. Someone who desperately wanted something from her father.

“What you saw today, at the place you guys were at, we can never speak of it.” Haseul intimidatingly stared down at them. Sojung understood, this was all to protect her father, who clearly had sensitive information. “Am I clear?” Her eyes darted between the two of them.

“Crystal-“

“-Clear.”

A pause. Then a stifled laugh. Then a chorus of giggles. It was the first time Sojung felt relaxed enough to put her guard down. She was finally in a safe place, among friends who had her back, even when she thought they didn’t.

“What are you guys laughing at?” Haseul rolled her eyes at the two.

Sooyoung let out a gasp of air in between her guffaws. “Am I clear?!” She said in a semi-mocking tone, causing Sojung to snort from laughing so hard.

Haseul cracked a smile. “Whatever! You guys are dismissed.”

It all hadn’t hit Sojung quite as hard until she fell into Hyunjung’s arms. Literally, fell into her arms, since Sooyoung sucked at helping her limp across the lobby. She silently sobbed into her wife’s chest.

“I’m so sorry, Hyunjung.” Sooyoung retreated back to her cubicle, giving the couple some space. Years worth of pain, have all come down to this day, and Sojung couldn’t even tell her wife the whole truth of what happened. At least she had Sooyoung and Haseul to talk to.

But it was time for Sojung to move on. Move forward, knowing that her father was alive and taken care of. Oh she wishes she could tell her mother.

Hyunjung wordlessly rubbed her back, just glad that Sojung is back and out of harms way. She doesn’t know what she would do without her. The team wouldn’t either.

EPILOGUE

“Meiqi, are you finally going to talk to me now that the trip is over?” Dawon had followed closely behind the younger girl after they arrived to the precinct. “I’m sorry, okay?”

Meiqi paused in front of her car, keys in her hand, back facing Dawon. “Honestly, I’m afraid.” She stood and listened, waiting for a rant to come out. “Because all this time, I’ve been hopelessly into you.”

Meiqi froze at the admission. She was sure that Dawon didn’t feel the same way about her, at all. This must be a joke, something that’s too good to be true. She felt a hand softly grip her wrist, turning her around and pinning her up against the car.

“Meiqi. Will you be my girlfriend?”

“I-“

“For Christ’s’ sake, please say yes already.” Juyeon seemed to materialize out of thin air from behind the car. Meiqi answered by plunging forward to kiss Dawon.

“What a long time coming!” And indeed it has, Juyeon had watched the two over the years pining over each other, but she wanted it to be organic. Something that would eventually happen naturally, not with her meddling in their business. It’s what they deserved.

“Come on, silly, let’s get home.” Jiyeon whisked away her tall girlfriend towards her car. She pulled Juyeon down and whispered into her ear. “I’m in desperate need of a bath.”

Juyeon stood glued to the parking lot concrete, watching dumbly as Jiyeon sauntered away while throwing back a wink over her shoulder. God, she loved her girlfriend.

Yeoreum dragged Dayoung into the precinct, claiming that she was just trying to grab something from her desk that she had forgotten. It was half true. She pulled out her bottom drawer, picking up the tiny box hidden underneath files of paper. She swiftly turned around to Dayoung aimlessly looking around the room.

Yeoreum drove her mind crazy thinking of ways to go about this, she even asked Jiyeon for advice, and she decided to go on that. The older girl actually told her exactly what to do. Yeoreum never would have pegged the older girl as corny, yet here she was, Yeoreum had to laugh.

Her heart was thumping, she wondered if Dayoung could tell. “Babe?” She got on one knee and Dayoung’s eyes widened like saucers.

“What... are you doing?”

Yeoreum grinned, opening the velvet box to reveal a key. “Will you move in with me?”

Dayoung paused, and then let out a laugh that was like music to Yeoreum’s ears. “Of course, you dork!” She joined her girlfriend on the floor and wrapped her up in a hug.

“Well, that’s a relief to hear!” Yeoreum felt warm, her heart was warm. And it was all thanks to Dayoung.

“I knew you were on the case.” Sojung said to Haseul, emitting a sigh from the smaller girl.

“I know you didn’t find the answers you were looking for, but I hope they were enough.”

Sojung and her team were back to work now, with memories of their trip to Busan in the rear view mirror. She thought back to a conversation with Haseul that she had about finding the fire, a sense of passion, for the job. She’s glad to say that she has found it again.

“I’m thinking we can go on our second honeymoon.” Sojung announced, dropping an envelope on Hyunjung’s desk. She ripped it open, and there were two plane tickets to Switzerland inside.

“You didn’t.” Hyunjung’s smile was worth it, Sojung thought. She loved making her happy.

“Oh, I did.”

With a new sense of outlook and peace, Sojung can finally charge forward into the future with her wife and teammates by her side. That’s all she needed.

Soobin and Xiao were sprawled out on the couch of the basement across from Yeonjung, Luda, and Xuanyi, who were also spread out on a bigger couch. They had invested in a second couch for the basement, knowing that it was soon going to become the place to hang out. It was their first day back, no new missions. The table was littered with soju bottles and beer cans. This is what hard work looked like.

“So... what now?”

**Author's Note:**

> the second half will come eventually! if you’d like to reach me my twitter is @lip2jin and my cc is https://curiouscat.me/yurisbomi


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